I get a lot of questions about differentiating fact from fiction when it comes to all the “healthy” labels out there. Spanning everything from “heart healthy” to “boost your child’s immunity,” these classic marketing ploys are just part and parcel for the food industry. And yet these companies wouldn’t get away with the games if their claims didn’t reflect conventional wisdom on some level. The industry’s marketing tactics simply manipulate already strained, twisted messages about health and nutrition. The consumer is left to wonder what’s truth, half truth and bold-face scheme. Unfortunately, it’s never safe to judge a product by its label. In fact, if it needs a label at all, it’s already subject to questioning. The safest assumption is this: there’s always more to the story.

Dear Mark,

I’ve been adapting my diet to the Primal Blueprint over the last few months. I like olive oil for salads but wonder about the bottle of canola oil sitting in my cupboard. I tend to use it more for cooking, but I don’t see canola oil mentioned on MDA like I do olive oil. The label says something like “good source of omega-3.” Is this true? I’m wondering what your take on canola is. Thanks!

Thanks to Deb for this week’s question. Canola oil isn’t part of the recommended Primal foods for a number of reasons actually. Of course, you’ll find it everywhere these days – in bottled mayonnaise, salad dressings, margarine spreads, etc. It’s the latest darling of the “heart healthy” food industry, and their marketing gurus splash “omega-3” all over the labels to catch consumers’ interest. The problem is, canola oil goes through more primping and processing than a dog at a Kennel Club show.

Canola was a hybrid derived from rapeseed to reduce the high erucic acid content of traditional rapeseed oil, which had a bitter taste and toxic effects from the acid. Canola oil is also called LEAR (Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed). Like most cash crops, the largest share of the market is by far GMO-based, and one corporate GMO giant, Monsanto, has been accused more than once of the release of unapproved GMO seed varieties. Despite all the genetic engineering, somehow canola remains one of the most heavily pesticide-treated crops. Hmmm – wonder how that all works.

Continuing on the canola’s journey now…. Once harvested and graded, seeds are heated to facilitate oil extraction. Most canola oil is chemically extracted using the harsh petroleum-derived solvent hexane. Even when expeller pressing is used, a process common to organic brands, the massive force of industrial presses still produces heat. True “cold-pressed” canola oil (extracted with millstones) does exist but can be hard to find and is more expensive.

Following extraction, canola oil must be de-gummed to remove unappealing solids that settle during storage. The process involves heat and sometimes the addition of acids. Next stop, the oil is then bleached and separated. Finally, the oil (known for its stench) must be deodorized through heating methods that use temperatures as high as 500 Fahrenheit.

This brings us back to the omega-3 issue. Polyunsaturated fats aren’t the most stable fats out there. In fact, they’re pretty sensitive to heat and will turn rancid quickly. Obviously, canola oil undergoes a good deal of heating and heat-related degeneration in its processing. Needless to say, this is no good. Whatever omega-3 benefit there might have been is gone – like keys in lava, as one of the old Jack Handey quotes put it. What’s more is, you end up with a small but damaging amount of trans fat in your “heart healthy” oil. How’s that for irony?

My thinking is this: why bother with something so processed and unhealthy when there are umpteen other, better options out there? Olive oil, coconut, palm oil, lard and ghee are suitable for most cooking applications. And for salads and other “no heat” dishes, you have dozens of tasty (non-deodorized) choices, including avocado and nut oils. As for canola, who needs it?

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Imagine you’re George Clooney. Take a moment to admire your grooming and wit. Okay, now imagine someone walks up to you and asks, “What’s your name?” You say, “I’m George Clooney.” Or maybe you say, “I’m the Clooninator!” You don’t say “I’m George of George Clooney Sells Movies Blog” and you certainly don’t say, “I’m Clooney Weight Loss Plan”. So while spam is technically meat, it ain’t anywhere near Primal. Please nickname yourself something your friends would call you.

I pretty much stick to olive oil for everything these days. Though I’m interested in trying avocado oil. Anyone know if foods fried/cooked in avocado oil have an avocado aftertaste? Because I’d love an avocado aftertaste on my grilled chicken, but not on my coconut pancakes.

My inlaws have a tough time that I cook with lard, but the irony is that they used to cook with lard when they grew up, because that was all that their parents new. Their parents live into the late 90s, while my father inlaw who has been eating a low-fat diet and uses margarine since the 1980s suffers congestive heart failure in his 60s.

This is to reply to Greg;
I have been using avocado oil for a year or so now. I use it almost exclusively for roasting chicken. I have never found it to leave an avocado “taste” but it browns up the skin quite nicely. I do use it mixed with olive oil or mac nut oil for salad dressing too. I can’t back this up, but I do remember reading that it has a fairly high smoke point so should be safe for roasting at say 375°. Try it out!
Diana

I’ll chime in. When there are such wonderful and healthy oils for cooking, such as coconut oil, palm oil, ghee, and lard, that are so readily available, why bother using anything else? I LOVE the flavors that the list of four oils above provide. Perhaps it is difficult to conceive of using oils that are solid (i.e., fat) at room temperature most of the year around most of the world? I don’t worry about this. I scoop the fat out of the jar, plop it into the frying or roasting pan, and lick the rest off the spoon. Or if it’s a dry winter, I’ll just rub the rest into my skin (except the very red palm oil). The only time I find a liquid oil is more convenient than a solid is when I’m backing, such as pancakes. I just melt the oil in a ramekin in the toaster oven and add it to the mix. A little extra step, but hey, it’s healthy and delicious. My red pancakes made with palm oil are a big hit in my house.

Rancid fat: Rancidity is caused by oxidation or hydrolysis. The main gist of the process is that these generate highly reactive molecules and destroy vitamins. Fats with lower free fatty acid content keep better because the chemical structure of them is less easily degraded. Highly rancid fats taste unpleasant, but somewhat rancid fats may not be detectable by taste. Keeping fats in cool, dark places and in tight containers can slow down the process. (from my Food Science text and http://chestofbooks.com/food/science/Experimental-Cookery/Rancidity.html, which is nice, but a little outdated)

Oxidized Fat in the Diet by Jeffrey S. Cohn is a review article summarizing several research studies: “Consumption of lower levels of oxidized fat on repeated occasions may pose a more chronic threat to health, however, particularly because low-level oxidation of meat, milk, poultry and cereal products during storage and processing is virtually unavoidable [4]. More extreme oxidation of fat can also occur when oils are used for cooking.”

He mentions that the natural oxidation of cholesterol produces at least 30 different compounds that are biologically active and are particularly prevalent in the milk and egg powders used in processed foods. Compounds such of these are shown in experiments to absorb quite easily into the intestinal wall. In animal studies, oxidized fat led to higher incidence of atherosclerosis. In studies of healthy adults, the consumption of these fats led to impaired arterial function. These effects were not seen following low-fat meals or meals of less oxidized fats.

Comparative Nutritional Value of Diets Containing Rancid Fat, Neutral Fat, and No Fat by Dorothy Whipple is an old one and describes the diet of lab animals. Lab rats fed slightly rancid fats slowly developed rather horrible symptoms like swelling, hair loss, and neurological degeneration…and eventually died prematurely. Animals fed no fats developed the typical dry-skin symptoms and lived somewhat longer. Animals fed fresh fats were the healthiest and lived the longest. The researcher concluded that in terms of her experimental animals, it was better to feed no fat than oxidized fat, though neither was optimal.

I looked up more info on oxidized fats and digestion and one experience noted that animals fed them showed “altered intestinal function or flora”

“Despite all the genetic engineering, somehow canola remains one of the most heavily pesticide-treated crops. Hmmm – wonder how that all works.”

One purpose of genetic engineering is to make the plant resistant to the damaging effects of pesticides, hence, the greater pesticide residues owing to heavier spraying. Yet another reason to avoid GMO foods.

It’s hard to find store-bought mayo that isn’t made with canola or an even worse oil (soybean, safflower, etc.)… impossible, actually. I’d like to try coconut oil, but at the moment it’s cold enough at room temperature that the coconut oil is rock solid – and this is in sunny Tucson, Arizona. I wouldn’t want to heat the coconut oil because I’d be worried about accidentally cooking the eggs. Macadamia nut oil is too expensive; extra-virgin olive oil too strong. What’s a mayonnaise-loving girl to do?

I’ve run into the same problem in norCal, just can’t find a mayo without either soy or canola. I found a jar of “olive oil” mayo once and was excited for five seconds until I read the label and realised that olive oil was actually at the bottom of the ingredients. I haven’t been brave enough to try making my own yet.

What about avocado oil? I’ve also seen some Groks make bacon fat mayo.

1. On the back of my canola oil it says that 100 grams contain 7.5 grams of saturated fats, 62.5 grams of monosaturated fats and 30 grams of polysaturated fats of which 9 grams is omega 3. These numbers are for the oil thats in the bottle, after the refinement. Suppose that the rest of the polyunsaturated fats (21 grams) are omega 6, this gives a ratio of roughly 2 in the finished product. Is that really that bad?

2. I read somwhere that 40% of the canola oil may consist of “transfats” (I don’t know the word in english). If this is true, are these “hidden” in the monosaturated fats in the declaration?

3. On the bottle it says that the refinement of the oil does not change the content of fatty acids in the oil. Is the company behind the product lying to me?

Do any studies on humans actually show that erucic acid is toxic? From what I have read, the only studies showing adverse effects are animal studies under extreme conditions (pigs feed pure erucic acid instead of breatmilk etc), and even then there was no permanent damage and their bodies adapted to the extreme diet. Studies in rats are useless no matter which oil you use since they poorly metabolise fat in general.

I parts of India, mustard oil and seeds (rich in erucsis acid) has been consumed for several tousand years and some studies has shown that mustard might have benecifial effects on cardiovascular disease. However, they never used refined oil, always fresh and cold pressed with lots of vitamins etc. Udo Erasmus has some interresting point on this matter.

I see no harm in using modest amounts of hybrid (not GMO) “rapeseed” oil (I live in Norway) if it`s cold pressed and not overcunsumed. ALA seems to have som benefints to health and rapeseed\canola is one of few natural sources rich in ALA (unfortunately). Is it paleo? Not exactly, but many “paleos” see no harm in eathing butter which by no means is more paleo than rapeseed…

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